Off-topic, but I have to put this out there.<\/p>\n
The constant Republican talking point on this topic is that if Democrats (and others) sincerely feel that waterboarding is torture, then they should explicitly state as such and make it illegal. Currently, the law reads “acts of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment” as torture. They’d like to turn the debate into a Democratic problem, claiming that there is a reasonable argument against its being torture, and that since it is questionable, it is the Dems fault that they are carrying out said torture.<\/p>\n
The Democratic response is that it is not questionable. All over the world, Americans or not, all military interrogators<\/a> and officers<\/a> (the second link goes on to explain that we prosecuted the Japanese for War Crimes when they used it in WWII), former POWs<\/a>, or yes, even Bush lawyers<\/a>, who have undergone or used waterboarding agree that it is torture. And this is a valid point, and the reason the Mukasey confirmation debate has carried on – to paraphrase Jon Stewart, “how could he not know waterboarding was going to be on the test?” It is undeniably torture.<\/p>\n But we still need to answer the off-topic-attempt-to-refocus Republican talking point: why not make it illegal explicitly? The Dems response of “we shouldn’t have to” does not hold water. The real response is: then what?<\/p>\n Then what? Do we have to list every known form of torture, and every one that could potentially be invented in the next hundred years? And when you make a new method not yet on the list and use it, you can say, again, that it was not explicitly illegal? And the cycle begins again. This is a horrible<\/em> and stupid<\/em> precedent to set. I cant believe that anyone<\/em> is letting them get away with this kind of reasoning; the media should be ashamed, and the Democratic leadership should take it on with some sense.<\/p>\n Now that that’s out of the way, let me restate that the world, and America, agree that waterboarding is torture. The experts agree that waterboarding is torture.<\/p>\n Jerks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Off-topic, but I have to put this out there. The constant Republican talking point on this topic is that if Democrats (and others) sincerely feel that waterboarding is torture, then they should explicitly state as such and make it illegal. Currently, the law reads “acts of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment” as torture. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9blZT-p5","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":904,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2005\/11\/13\/if-cheneys-for-torture-why-not-use-it-on-scooter\/","url_meta":{"origin":1555,"position":0},"title":"If Cheney’s for torture, why not use it on Scooter?","author":"nathaniel","date":"13 November 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"TheStar.com - If Cheney's for torture, why not use it on Scooter? This is a must-read. Hilarious and very smart.","rel":"","context":"In "news and politics"","block_context":{"text":"news and politics","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/news-and-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":339,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2004\/05\/26\/world-at-small\/","url_meta":{"origin":1555,"position":1},"title":"world at small","author":"nathaniel","date":"26 May 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Susan Sontag | Regarding the Torture of Others - highly recommended. Beautifully written, thought-provoking, and slightly scary. Sontag is swell. Pension fund for artists - nice idea. \"A new company called Mutual Art has created a pension fund for artists, which they fund by 'investing' artworks rather than cash.\" Google\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news and politics"","block_context":{"text":"news and politics","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/news-and-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1255,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2006\/07\/03\/andrew-sullivan-is-very-cool\/","url_meta":{"origin":1555,"position":2},"title":"Andrew Sullivan is very cool","author":"nathaniel","date":"03 July 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I am not, and probably will never consider myself, a \"conservative\" - tho I know not what that means in today's American climate. Still, as many Dems cower before the current administration, it has been the reasonable few, on \"both sides\" of the political spectrum, who speak volumes of truth.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news and politics"","block_context":{"text":"news and politics","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/news-and-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":399,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2004\/08\/14\/machinations\/","url_meta":{"origin":1555,"position":3},"title":"machinations","author":"nathaniel","date":"14 August 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a pic of one of Arno Morland's large-scale sculptures, from his solo exhibition that opened at franchise last night, machinations; they're meant to be playful (I noticed this from the CD-ROMs he was giving out, which showed children sitting in and around the art-as-monkey-bars). To me, when I got\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"arno_morland.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/arno_morland.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1338,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2006\/10\/01\/is-america-dead\/","url_meta":{"origin":1555,"position":4},"title":"is america dead? (updated below)","author":"nathaniel","date":"01 October 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Friday was, perhaps, the saddest day in American history. And it went mostly quickly and quietly, except for the \"liberal\" lefty blogger base.These crazy opponents to Bush's new bill, which passed in the Senate 65-34, actually believe that Bush should not be able to legally torture or hold detainees permanently,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news and politics"","block_context":{"text":"news and politics","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/news-and-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1319,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2006\/09\/16\/project-censored-top-25-stories-of-2007-that-you-won%e2%80%99t-hear-about\/","url_meta":{"origin":1555,"position":5},"title":"Project Censored: Top 25 Stories of 2007 (that you won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hear about)","author":"nathaniel","date":"16 September 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"via C&L: #1 Future of Internet Debate Ignored by Media#2 Halliburton Charged with Selling Nuclear Technologies to Iran#3 Oceans of the World in Extreme Danger#4 Hunger and Homelessness Increasing in the US#5 High-Tech Genocide in Congo#6 Federal Whistleblower Protection in Jeopardy# 7 US Operatives Torture Detainees to Death in Afghanistan\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news and politics"","block_context":{"text":"news and politics","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/news-and-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1555\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}